Thoughts by MasterLee (20 Aug 2015) – PC
Following the motto of never breaking for anything, the player’s avatar bolts across the screen at breakneck speed, just to swallow a beer from time to time. The only thing which could stop him would be the screen borders. Almost sounds like a Werner game, but there are a few differences. The most striking one first: the beer will not get you drunk, but stretches you. Also, the protagonist does not come from Schleswig-Holstein, but from Frankfurt, and it is not a rocker, but a worm. Welcome to the world of Wurmi aus Frankfurt.
No high-tech could be another motto of this title, so either you switch off the turbo or you configure Dosbox appropriately slow to be ready to play the game. Right after launching it, you can select the difficulty level, easy or hard, set the speed to one of six levels and have the choice to play either with or without annoying sounds.
And off you go. In the game itself, you have fewer options. You can turn left or right at any time, and that’s it. Though the controls are absolute, not relative (take that, Einstein), meaning you press one of the four cursor keys for the direction you would like to move to and not just left and right. However, you have to decide quickly, because of the borders, a wall or your own behind stops you, you lose a life. Also, you have to collect mushrooms to reach the next level. You receive points for that and after losing all lives also a nice rank with a title.
All this is presented in wonderful ASCII. The mushrooms are spades (♠), so actually leaves, but anything. The worm consists of a black smiley and hashes. The rest of the surroundings is even simpler. Talking about the sound, it is better to switch it off.
The author or producer is not named throughout the game. It is possible that this game originated from a Basic course at a university, or from a magazine or a programming book. All this is pure speculation. What is known, on the other hand, is that the game has been developed in GW Basic, the same language used by Bill Gates to write his AAA gaming classic Donkey. Today, you cannot get the game individually anymore, but only bundled with other GW Basic games (including Donkey) in Compudent’s collection.
Translated by Mr Creosote